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Business Is Piece Of Cake

Tribune photo by JIM REED

Karen Walker decorates a birthday cake at Sweetie's Delights Bakery in Bloomingdale.

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By LAURA FRAZIER

The Tampa Tribune

Published: June 3, 2008

Updated: 06/04/2008 06:24 am

VALRICO - A sweet secret at a new bakery on Bloomingdale Avenue entices Stephan Scalera to travel there once a week from his home in Bradenton.

"It's the Whippy Dip," Scalera said, referring to the homemade icing used to top cakes and cupcakes at Sweetie's Delights Bakery. He said compared with commercially prepared frosting, "It's thicker, it's sweeter and it just melts in your mouth."

Karen and Bill Walker, along with their daughters Jessica Walker and Krystal Shiver, opened the store in Plaza Bella three months ago. They specialize in gourmet cupcakes and custom wedding and birthday cakes and also offer handmade cookies, candies and tea cakes.

Shiver said the top-secret recipe for Whippy Dip is about 100 years old, passed down through five generations on her mother's side of the family.

"We start with a butter-cream base and add some other ingredients," she said. "People really love it, and say they've never tasted anything like it before."

Minicupcakes adorned with a dollop of the icing - "no sprinkles, no frills, just very simple," Shiver said - were voted "Best Dessert" at the Greater Brandon Chamber of Commerce's Taste of Brandon in May.

Shiver said the little cakes are trendy and in high demand for birthday parties and other celebrations. Her sister decorated more than 300 cupcakes during Memorial Day Weekend, many ordered for graduation parties.

At the bakery last week, Bill Walker baked a batch of key lime cupcakes while Jessica Walker decorated dozens more. Some were topped with marshmallows and chocolate to taste like the favorite campfire treats S'mores. Others were rolled in salted peanuts and sprinkled with chopped Snickers bars to mimic the taste of the salty-sweet candy bar.

Karen Walker, the bakery's resident decorator, creates one-of-a-kind cakes for weddings and birthday parties.

"If a little girl is going to have a Hannah Montana birthday party and you come here, you don't just get a quarter sheet cake with a prop stuck in the top," Shiver said. "You get Hannah's bedroom or you get a soundstage. You get a lanyard and a backstage pass, stars, music notes, the Hannah Barbie doll ... ."

When it comes to wedding cakes, Karen Walker likes large, grand presentations.

Debbie and Gerald Wright, who were married May 24 at their home in Brandon, ordered a unique cake from Sweetie's. The four-tier confection was laced with raspberry and pineapple nut filling and decorated with handmade white roses, vines and leaves.

Debbie Wright said the cake was the centerpiece of her wedding dinner table and the highlight of her day.

"Oh man, you have no idea," she said. "The cake was absolutely fabulous."

SWEETIE'S DELIGHTS BAKERY

WHAT: Custom birthday and wedding cakes, gourmet cupcakes and minicupcakes, cookies, candies and tea cakes. The business also offers children's birthday parties where guests decorate cupcakes, eat pizza, enjoy party favors and more.

COSTS: Cakes start at $3.75 per serving, cupcakes at $2.50 each or $27 a dozen. Minicupcakes are $1, tea cakes cost $1.25 per serving and jumbo cupcakes with 20 servings are $35.

WHERE: 1050 Bloomingdale Ave., Valrico, in Plaza Bella

HOURS: 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, closed Sunday

INFORMATION: (813) 662-5671 or www.sweetiesdelights.com

Reporter Laura Frazier can be reached at (813) 657-4523 or lfrazier@tampatrib.com.

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